November
has been quite dry with only 53mm of rain. We only started the rainfall
figures last January so far we have had a total of 681mm of rain this
year

The drier weather has meant
that we could spread more muck and we have nearly spread all that Edwards
bobcat cleared out in October.

This has also meant that
we can use the loading ramp to put the muck straight into the spreader
and here is a picture to show.

This month seems to have
been one long spell of cleaning out, feeding and bedding the cattle.

Only 2 calves have been
born this month 1 black and white bull and 1 Simmental bull, however
there are 8 due for December.

Over the last 2 months
Paul, Andrew and myself have been preparing a page showing the milking
process and this led me to enquire just where does our milk go to at
present.

Our milk is collected by www.zenithmilk.com
and at present it is going into Cadburys chocolate. Simon is currently
studying business studies for his GCSEs and he went there as part of
the course he took these pictures unfortunately however he was not allowed
to photo inside the factory (and came back 2kg heavier :-).

The cows are now in day
and night and there are just 29 heifers still outside we hope to keep
them out until after Christmas as this year we will not be having any
sheep.

Foot and Mouth seems to
be disappearing so we are keeping our fingers crossed that things will
return to normal early in 2002 as the 3month case free period will hopefully
have passed and then the markets can re-open and we can sell some of
these excess calves.

The
trees are now nearly all bare, and as I write my final autumn
nature report winter is beginning.

Next month I am hoping
to alter the collecting yard to accommodate the next batch of calves
and keep spreading muck along with the usual jobs.